There are two things that bug me about Kristina Chew -- one, the fact she thinks it's funny to joke about me being shot and killed; and, far more than that, her preposterously precious and condescending style when she criticizes the way anyone she doesn't agree with writes about autism.

These two things merge into one single sin -- the abuse of language by someone who thinks that's what they're writing about. Someone who would choose to describe herself as "a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie."

After you've been through enough Chew, you know what's coming even without the Classics and Virgil references-- another exegesis with tropes drawn with abandon from the wide range of literature with which she is ever so familiar and sprinkles like pixie dust over her presumably agog and agape readers.

In responding to John Stone’s Age of Autism article ‘Simon Baron-Cohen: Thinking Differently About Autism’ on One Click News, Prof Baron-Cohen not only firmly conceded that autism is in part environmental - contradicting the Offit doctrine beloved of health officials on both sides of the Atlantic – he seems to have offered a further hostage to fortune. The point is taken up now by Clifford Miller on the ChildHealthSafety website HERE, who demonstrates that Baron-Cohen offered a fallacious proof that some cases of autism were “genetic”, based on instances of autism in identical twins. Yet, less than three weeks ago Baron-Cohen was kite-flying the idea that genetic screening for autism might soon be possible. As usual there seems to be some confusion as to what Prof Baron-Cohen really thinks. The case continues to unravel... HERE.

Clifford Miller is a practising UK lawyer, and graduate physicist of Imperial College, London. In 2007 he organized the successful defence and exoneration of London GP Jayne Donegan HERE against charges of giving misleading evidence on vaccine safety and effectiveness.

I have pictures of my kids on the refrigerator like any parent does. I have magnets for the local pizza joint, a couple of letters from a plastic alphabet that haven’t been lost or thrown out and a few magnetic words that have survived several moves and small, sticky hands. Magnetic words used to define my love for any piece of literature I could get my hands on. This past weekend, while cleaning out my bathroom, I found a lone magnetic word and slapped it on the fridge. It happened to be next to another word hanging over Ronan’s picture. The phrase “silent frog” stared with steely eyes. My son who struggles is in fact very quiet. Many days, he’s almost too quiet.

You’ll see a ‘sincerity test’-- conducted by a school attorney when my husband and I filed a religious waiver to refuse vaccines for our boys. David Cohen, attorney for our school, wanted to make supersure that we really, really believed in God. Of course, those people who lie about their belief in God are much more prone to diphtheria, hepatitis, measles, etc.—those disease-ridden atheists must be kept out of the public schools.

Managing Editor's Note: The easiest way to participate is to click HERE and read the info on the Autism Action Coalition site. We've copied the info below, but please, go to their site for details and to particpate in this action alert!

“The bureaucrats responsible for this scandal are on the wrong side of history…”- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Kirby, Huffington Post 1/27/09

Last week The Autism Action Coalition asked the autism community to send letters to key government decision-makers objecting to the inexcusable actions of the Federal members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) in retracting vaccine-autism studies. Your response was overwhelming and thousands of letters were sent!

We’re asking for your help again before the next IACC meeting takes place – less than a week away! We are asking you to call 3 key legislators who are critical in making sure that autism research addresses the mounting health crisis of people with ASD.

Paula Crossfield is a HuffPo blogger (she writes about food, see her site, Civil Eats) who draws the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, mercury really is a problem for our kids. Click HERE to read and comment please.

Until now, parents of children with autism who have spoken up about their fears that their child's disorder came on the heels of vaccination have been given the status of heretic. But it turns out that the increase in autism we have been witnessing over the last few decades could be a result of the over-all increase in the body burden caused by mercury in our air and water, and by proxy the fish we eat, our vaccines and dental fillings, and now, in our high fructose corn syrup, a substance marketed and consumed most often by those most at risk: children...

Managing Editor's Note: David Kirby's post Il Mercurio and the AAP on the Italian study has been duly noted by Dr. First of AAP. Dr. First has updated his site. Molto bene. Click HERE.

It has been brought to my attention that in the study on thimerosal briefly highlighted below, I noted that groups did or did not get thimerosal and had similar results in terms of neuropsychological developmental outcomes. Reading of this study will indicate that both groups studied actually did have thimerosal in their vaccines, one group having 62.5 micrograms cumulative intake and the other 137.5 micrograms cumulative intake. While the amount of thimerosal in the lower group studied in Italy is less (according to the author of this study Dr. Tozzi) than the small amounts used in this country, I do want to correctly indicate there was no group studied that received no thimerosal whatsoever in their vaccines. The results of this study suggesting essentially minimal (if any) differences in developmental outcomes remains as stated--although a limitation as noted by Dr. Tozzi is that there was no comparison group with zero exposure to thimerosal. I appreciate the readers who have brought this to my attention so that I could more accurately clarify my interpretation of this study. Please read this article for yourself to learn more.

Pediatrics is warning it's members about the alternative vax schedules that its customers, its clients, its PATIENTS are demanding. And that politicians, parents, doctors, scientists and other sane people are now considering the norm, not the exception. And look! Another Rotovirus vaccine has been licensed!

In a special article in the January issue of Pediatrics, the authors discuss the increasing popularity of a book by Dr. Robert Sears (The Vaccine Book: Making the Right Decision for Your Child) in which he provides alternative vaccine schedules for parents who want to decline, delay, or reduce the number of vaccines. The authors of the special article provide information about the fallacies of the alternative approach and summarize misconceptions of families and physicians who opt for the alternative schedule. All physicians who care for children should read this article to increase their understanding of alternative vaccine schedules and to better inform parents.

Managing Editor's Note: To learn more about the One Click Group, click HERE.

Curves and Swerves Tricks used by Professor Baron-Cohen and the British government to avoid what is staring them in the face in autism.

By Lisa Blakemore BrownPsychologist

Over the last few years, given the frightening epidemic of autism and the appalling suffering of so many, I have been bewildered by the choice of research undertaken by those who have been able to get funding from the UK Government. It has become increasingly obvious that the elephant in the room – vaccines linked to autism, cot death and other conditions – is being ignored as are those who have suffered, unless of course they are blamed. Blame theories (such as Munchausen by Proxy) form another elephant that people have turned a blind eye to and if you read this article you will see that MSBP is intertwined with vaccines issues.

Meanwhile extraordinarily obscure theories are given funding, presumably because they will usefully distract attention from the real issues. However, the recent stories in the media about Simon Baron-Cohen’s research on prenatal bio-markers have led us up the dark path of eugenics.

The new thimerosal study published in Pediatrics leaves a lot of open questions. So does the response to the study by the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Dr. Lewis First.

In his blog introducing the study, Dr. First wrote that, "You'll be reassured that the results show essentially no differences between groups who did or did not get thimerosal in their vaccines-and you'll want to know this information when talking with parents of your patients about the safety and benefits of vaccines." http://pediatricsblog.blogspot.com/

But that made no sense. The study clearly stated that all children received thimerosal in the first year of life - some got 62.5 micrograms and the rest got 137.5 mcg. But there were no children who "did not get thimerosal," as Dr. First urged America's pediatricians to tell parents.

I thought I would write to AAP and clear things up, and see if a correction would be run. Officials there were (and have been) courteous, respectful and professional. So I sent the following email to the press office of the Academy:

It was October 2005. Generation Rescue had only been up and running for about 5 months, and we had 125 brave souls who had put their names, locations, and emails on our website to serve as Rescue Angels to help other parents (today we have more than 800) on their journey through biomedical intervention.

On or around October 10th of that year, I heard from a Rescue Angel Mom who was extremely distraught. It turned out that someone, most likely a member of the "ND" community, had blended a post they had seen from her on a message board, her Rescue Angel information, and somehow figured out where she worked. This person had contacted the Rescue Angel's employer and told them something to the effect of, "Your employee is a volunteer of this organization, believes and says a lot of scary things about autism [like that it's triggered by vaccines and is treatable], and why is she allowed to say and do these things and work here?"

Managing Editor's Note: We're pleased to provide a second workout routine from fitness expert Ray Salomone (who is also a proud new Daddy! His son was born in December.) His WARRIORS AND GODDESSES WORKOUT PLAN is free for the asking, justsend him an email through his website www.GrecoRomanWellness.com

By Ray Salomone

Hi Everyone,

Thanks so much for welcoming me back. The last workout I posted was a quick blast that worked the entire body. (HERE)

This time I want to focus on legs. Many reports have shown that legstrength, or lack of, is a great predictor of longevity and qualityof life as we get older. So my thought is: Strong legs and the restwill follow.

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms. Given how much high-fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply," said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy's Dr. David Wallinga, a co-author of both studies.

(Dr. Wallinga is a graduate of The U. of Minnesota medical school and holds a Masters from Princeton University (alma mater of our own Mark Blaxill.)

Click HERE to read the collaboration of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and David Kirby on Huffington Post is a piece called, Autism, Vaccines and the CDC: the Wrong Side of History. Please comment at HuffPo. It may take a while for your comment to appear, be patient.

Even as the evidence connecting America's autism epidemic to vaccines mounts, dead-enders at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) -- many of whom promoted the current vaccine schedule and others with strong ties to the vaccine industry -- are trying to delay the day of reckoning by creating questionable studies designed to discredit any potential vaccine-autism link and by derailing authentic studies...

Age of Autism Editor at Large Mark Blaxill was featured on Boston's Chronicle news program in a feature about toxic kids. What is making American children sick? Cancer rates are climbing. Cases of autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and asthma are through the roof. Is the answer all around us – in the food our kids eat, the air they breathe, and the clothes they wear? Tonight, Chronicle investigates a provocative thesis about the American lifestyle and its effects on children's health

The show featured the book, Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children (see the website HERE) by Philip and Alice Shabecoff. Take note of the link to our sponsor www.SafeMinds.org on the WCVB site!

The four progam links are below. Mark is in the first link. See the show website HERE.

The inexcusable actions of the Federal members of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) in retracting vaccine-autism studies must be stopped. Sound science must move forward, not thwarted by Federal agencies with vested interests in on-going vaccine-autism injury litigation.

The autism advocacy organizations listed below implore parents of children with autism - and all those who care about the burgeoning rate of autism and its toll on the health of our children - to take immediate action.

We are asking you to write a letter of disapproval to key government decision-makers on autism. Your letter will be sent to President Obama, your Senators and Representatives, HHS Secretary Tom Daschle, the Senate HELP Committee, Senators Christopher Dodd, Joe Lieberman, and Edward Kennedy, and Congressmen Chris Smith and Joe Barton.

Your letters are needed NOW. The next IACC meeting is Wednesday, February 4, 2009 - less than two weeks away!

You have an opportunity to comment on CDC's vaccine safety agenda. Electronic responses are preferred and may be addressed to vaccinesafetyRFI@hhs.gov. You can send a personal story, like the hundreds of comments left on Dr. Paul Offit's piece on HuffPo, or touch on one of the topics at the end of this post.

The official deadline is 2/2 but comments that are filed today by 5 will be summarized and included in the folders for the NVAC vaccine safety working group.There are a few revealing sentences in the NVAC document. CDC concedes on page 33 that"[u]sually simultaneous vaccination is incompletely studied at time of licensure." And this one on page 17: "Little is known about the immune gene expression changes that occur after vaccination; even less is known about immune genes expressed during an [adverse event following immunization]." Is this finally an admission that the vax schedule is an experiment and the government is treating a generation of kids as lab rats? Read the full (this is the home page for the National Vacccine Advisory Committee working group.)

It is extremely important that our voices be heard, both as individuals and as organizations. Without constructive engagement, there will never be change. So, please take the time to make a paper trail, and, if possible, attend this and the other upcoming meetings.

SUMMARY: The National Vaccine Program Office (NVPO) is soliciting public comment on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Immunization Safety Office (ISO) draft Scientific Agenda related to scientific research questions in vaccine safety.

In 1931 the Nobel Prize was awarded to German scientist Otto Warburg for his theory that cancer started from injury to the mitochondria, the cell’s energy power plant, creating a low oxygen environment in the cell.

In 2000 an article appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry (“Temporal Lobe Dysfunction in Childhood Autism: A PET Study”), which showed areas of hypoperfusion (low oxygen) in those areas of the brain responsible for language and auditory comprehension. This finding has been replicated in many studies.

In 2008 the US Government conceded the Hannah Poling case, based on evidence that her vaccinations triggered an underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, resulting in her autism and seizures.

In the years following Warburg’s award, though, the inquiry into the causes of cancer shifted to genetic mutations. The charge leveled against Warburg’s work was that he had identified the effects of cancer, and not a cause. Similarly, no consistent pattern of mitochondrial defect could be found. Many believed it was a mistake to have awarded him the Nobel Prize.

Managing Editor's Note: Thanks to John Stone for providing us with info from The UK.

By John Stone

Last weekend the noted Observer journalist and polemicist on civil liberties, Henry Porter, announced a national event to take place in London in a month’s time, an open conference on the dire state of civil liberties in Britain and called ‘The Convention on Modern Liberty’, to which an as yet incomplete list of speakers from many walks of life were invited. The title of his article was ‘Let the war on hypocrisy begin’ (HERE.)

I posted the following comment:

“One place we can begin the war on hypocrisy is to stop believing in the blanket state denial over vaccine damage. This week the information commissioner ruled that MMR vaccine files which the government have fought tooth and nail to remain hidden must be opened. An account of the lengths to which the British establishment and state have gone to to keep this matter under wraps can be found HERE.

Managing Editor's Note: Our Anne Dachel posted several articles about problems in the FDA in a post we ran yesterday HERE.

WASHINGTON – In an unusually blunt letter, a group of federal scientists is complaining to the Obama transition team of widespread managerial misconduct in a division of the Food and Drug Administration.

"The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the scientific review process for medical devices at the FDA has been corrupted and distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at risk," said the letter, dated Wednesday and written on the agency's Center for Devices and Radiological Health letterhead.

Listen to Dan's monthly radio chat with Coy Barefoot, a good friend of AOA and Host and Producer of Charlottesville -- Right Now on NewsRadio 1070 WINA. Topics include the Obama administration, turmoil at Autism Speaks, and Jett Travolta's tragic death.

Save the Date! On Saturday, January 31st, the Autism United Coalition is sponsoring a second meeting to work on our state-wide agenda for the 2009 legislative session at . The meeting will be held at The Clarion Hotel in Albany - 3 Watervliet Extension. Registration is at 10:00am and the formal meeting starting at 11:00am and running until 4:00pm.

This is an open invitation to leaders and activists within the autism community in New York who are interested in bringing positive change to people and families with autism. We welcome all input and ideas - particularly those regarding minimizing the impact of state budget cuts.

If you are unable to attend, but would like to work on these issues with us, please forward your full contact information and the names of your local legislators. Please also extend this invitation to anyone you know may be interested. We are hoping to have local contact people in every legislative district.

In response to the information coming over from the UK recently, we would like to let readers know that the January 2009 issue of The Autism File USA, which starts reaching stores on January 29, includes Martin Walker's article titled "Vaccine Damage Denial and the British Press." This includes information about the Urabe strain MMR vaccine and obstructionism in the press. Other articles in this issue include:

For these and more than thirty additional informative articles on education, treatment, advocacy, and more, please visit a bookstore that stocks The Autism File USA or visit www.autismfile.com to subscribe.

If media accounts about Kirsten Gillibrand of New York are correct, then I am pleased to be the first to report that my new Senator is a supporter of research into possible connections between vaccines and autism.

The presumptive Senator, a moderate Democrat from the Hudson Valley, is sure to join the growing chorus of voices in the US Senate - and well beyond - in calling for more Federal funding for scientific studies into vaccines and autism, including Senators Kennedy, Dodd, McCain, Lieberman and Enzi, among others, and former Senators Clinton and Obama.

In the 110th Congress, Representative Gillibrand was one of 22 Co-Sponsors of H. R. 2832, the "Comprehensive Comparative Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Populations Act of 2007." This bill would direct the Secretary of HHS "to conduct or support a comprehensive study comparing total health outcomes, including risk of autism, in vaccinated populations in the United States with such outcomes in unvaccinated populations in the United States."

Here come more vaccine boosters, because everyone knows, if a product doesn't work, you simply give more. From NJ.com. New Jersery, where the flu vaccine is now mandated. Could the flu vaccine be interfering with the efficacy of the pertussis vaccine?

A dozen cases of whooping cough have been found in children since the middle of last month in Hunterdon County, health officials said today.

"It is not unusual to have individual cases. It is unusual for us to have this number of cases in this defined time period," said John Beckley, the Hunterdon County health director.

All of the infected children had been vaccinated, but Hunterdon officials said the immunity to the vaccine can wane between ages 7 and 9 and that there is no licensed vaccine for children in that age group.

Louise Kuo Habakus, a member of the New Jersey Coalition for Vaccination Choice, said girls receive 69 shots by age 18 and boys get 66 during that time. "Our babies and our toddlers receive five pertussis shots until age 5, and that's not enough to protect them at age 7?" she said. Read more HERE.

The December 19th episode of “This American Life” on Chicago Public radio was titled “Bad Apples.” You can hear the broadcast HERE.

The following is the description of this episode off of the “This American Life” website:Ruining It for the Rest of Us

Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else...or who are accused of that. Like the San Diego parents who didn't vaccinate their child for measles. When their seven-year-old caught the disease on an overseas trip, this decision became a whole community's problem. The outbreak infected 11 children and endangered many others.

It’s a simple question, and a profoundly important one to people like me who have a child with seizures. The recent death of Jett Travolta from a seizure leaves parents like us feeling that may some day be our story, despite all our best efforts. Dan Olmsted’s recent article, “The Unnatural History of Seizures” appropriately places at least some of the blame on environmental factors, but leaves unanswered the question of exactly how such seizures are caused. However, recent research from New York University (NYU), and the Scripps Institute may answer some questions which have long eluded researchers. (“Peering Inside Skull of a Mouse to Solve Meningitis Mystery: Immune Cells Implicated in Fatal Seizures”, Science Daily, January 7, 2009)

In case anyone pops in from HuffPo - here's a reminder of what vaccines mean. It reads?

"How far will the government go to assure the public that safety fears are unfounded?"

Ah, yes, saving the little children! Protecting the elderly! Your child with autism stands in the way of commerce, friends. Read more about this $300 teleconference HERE.

The vaccine industry has flourished during the Bush Administrations: Government support has flowed to the industry for new facilities, new technologies and new markets. Important new vaccines have been approved for pediatric, adolescent, and adult diseases.

Biodefense initiatives and proactive programs on natural disease disasters (like pandemic influenza) dominated the Bush Administration's vaccine agenda. The stimulus to research and commercial capacity was immense: a dramatic change for a previously overlooked sector of the biopharma field.

Will the government remain an active, supportive partner for vaccines in the new administration, or will the renaissance wane? New forms of government support are possible from the Obama Administration:

Incentives for first-dollar coverage for vaccines Incentives to providers for increased vaccination rates

Is IACC a serious autism research committee or a daytime drama? I’m confused. This would be funny if so much were not at stake. The machinations, backstabbing, covert agendas, and secret confabs are reminiscent of 2000 Florida re-count. Sometimes rules and laws apply, other times they do not, secret phone calls, secret meetings, anonymous votes, mysterious re-votes on already settled business, broken promises, probably broken laws…

Parents all over this country who worked so hard to see the CAA passed were listening to Wednesday’s goings on thinking, “What the hell, Tom!” When my parents should have been down in Florida with their pals, playing golf and generally being retired, they were pounding the halls the Congress and the Senate working hard to procure this money for autism research. I went with them only a few times, but I never saw Tom Insel or Ed Trevathan there. Now, Tom and his cronies seem to think it is their prerogative to re-write the Combatting Autism Act. Enzi, Kennedy and Dodd, clearly and unequivocally said on the Senate floor that the CAA must finance independent vaccine research. Not, “independent vaccine research- pending the approval Tom Insel and Alison Singer.”

Managing Editor's Note: Congratulations to our sponsor TACA on a "whale" of a grant! TACA will put this money where it's heart is - with the children.

TALK ABOUT CURING AUTISM RECEIVES $300,000 GRANT FROM PACIFIC LIFE FOUNDATION TO PROVIDE SERVICES FOR FAMILIES AFFECTED BY AUTISM IN ORANGE COUNTY

Costa Mesa, CA - January 21, 2009 -Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) is thrilled to announce the receipt of a $300,000 multi-year grant from the Newport Beach based Pacific Life Foundation. As a direct result of this generous contribution, TACA will launch three new programs for Orange County, California for families including a Spanish-language program, the addition of an in house advocate to provide education, training and support for families, and scholarships that would allow families to procure independent assessments for their children. All of these programs are offered at no charge to families affected by autism.

Managing Editor's Note: In light of Jett Travolta's death and the seizure suffered by Senator Ted Kennedy during the inaugural luncheon, this post represents a real fear held by every parent of a child with seizures.

By Kent Heckenlively, Esq.

His name was Kevin* (pseudonym) and he was one of my students.

He came to my school in October of last year but before he arrived we had a full staff meeting about him. He had severe seizures and we were instructed that if he had a seizure in our class we should immediately check the clock, and if they persisted for more than 3 minutes we should call 911.

Kevin was big for his age, and whether from the seizures, or his medication, often walked like a drunken sailor. His aide sometimes had a belt attached to him in case he started to fall. In my science class they put him at a far table, and he often colored while the other children engaged in activities.

But I move around a fair amount in my classes and I always made sure to connect with him. For better or worse, I consider myself a Son-Rise person when it comes to interacting with people who have autism. That means we think of ourselves as ambassadors of the human race and try to make our world look so inviting that they will want to join it.

The Great Denial of vaccine risks for the past three decades by vaccine makers, pediatricians and government officials operating the mass vaccination system is the reason why more and more parents today question and mistrust vaccine science, policy and law. When Harris Coulter and I co-authored DPT: A Shot in the Dark in 1985 exposing flaws in the mass vaccination system that allowed the highly reactive DPT vaccine to stay on the market unimproved for more than 40 years, we never imagined then that those tragic flaws in the system would remain largely intact in 2009.

I knew then that the alliance between industry, organized medicine and government was powerful. But it is only after a quarter century of witnessing the Great Denial of vaccine risks, which has produced millions of vaccine damaged children flooding special education classrooms and doctors offices, that the magnitude of that unchecked power has been fully revealed...

Click HERE to read the rest of this post at the Vaccine Awakening blog.

Barbara Loe Fisher is co-founder and president of the National Vaccine Information Center. She is the co-author of DPT: A Shot in the Dark (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1985; Warner (1986); Avery (1991); now with Putnam); author of The Consumer's Guide to Childhood Vaccines (NVIC 1997) and Vaccines, Autism & Chronic Inflammation: The New Epidemic (2008); editor of the weekly NVIC Vaccine E-Newsletter and a blogger at www.VaccineAwakening.blogspot.com

Managing Editor's Note: You can listen to an interview with Professor Simon Baron-Cohen on Autism One Radio HERE. (When the show time is highlighted in blue that means it's archived. Click it to to an audio player.)

Simon Baron-Cohen has responded to John Stone's Age of Autism article 'Simon Baron-Cohen: Thinking different about autism' (HERE) which was re-published on One Click News with the header 'Malefic Idiot Psychologist'. The exchange of letters between Prof Baron-Cohen and John Stone can be read HERE.

In it Baron-Cohen concedes a vital point: that environmental factors in autism are as important as genetic. So, why is it that the medical establishment across the Atlantic - including Baron-Cohen - have sought to marginalise environmental factors such as vaccine from the debate for the past two decades amid innumerable reports and expressions of parental anguish? Why is it also that professionals showing concern in the UK such as Andrew Wakefield, Lisa Blakemore-Brown and Jayne Donegan have been persecuted?

Where was Baron-Cohen's voice when this happened?

But pehaps most curious of all in the current context is the question: what was Baron-Cohen's purpose, only two weeks ago, in trying to initiate a debate on autism screening when he seems to agree here that the a purely gene based theory of autism is unsustainable, and that therefore the issue really does not arise?

Many readers have emailed us that they can not comment on the site. The blog software has changed and commenting was affected. A wily reader solved the problem. We suggest you type your comment, then hand type your entire screen name and your complete email address in full, DO NOT USE AUTOFILL (that's where you type the first letter and the computer remembers and adds the rest.) That should make the gray "post" button flip over to black. We're sorry for any inconvenience. KS

Very simply what follows is the story of a young man with Autism who voted for the first time because he wanted to vote for you.

But it is also a tale about the wars at home and abroad and about the frightening implications regarding an epidemic that affects, at the least, a generation of children.

Our son Daniel Mulvaney is 21 and suffers from a severe disability, one that rendered him suddenly and terrifyingly mute at the age of three and half. As the child of young foreign correspondents who lived and worked in Latin America and Asia, he heard many languages at an early age. Before this regression occurred our Dan spoke English and used phrases and sentences in Spanish, Cantonese and Tagalog. Today, he still cannot utter more than one or two hard-wrought words.

For years, my husband and I have been trying to find out what happened, ever-hopeful that knowledge will lead to cure. I am now an author of non-fiction and novels published by Scribner and Bantam Dell. My husband ultimately led a Pulitzer-prize winning team of investigative reporters. Putting our two heads together we have come to strongly suspect what our instincts told us when this first happened: That Dan was environmentally harmed. It may have happened in Hong Kong where his regression occurred. The source of damage also could have been Mexico City – or Long island. Or any of a number of other places where we lived and traveled both before and after Dan was born. As we continue our long search we explore everything, including the possibility of tarnished or intrinsically risky vaccinations.

Managing Editor's Note: The following is a response to the IACC meeting from our sponsor Generation Rescue.

Generation Rescue consulted with a prominent DC law firm to assess possible legal recourse for multiple violations of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) committed by the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC). The firm is a public interest law group dedicated to providing high quality legal services and advocacy for non-profit organizations and specializes in FACA and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation.

Generation Rescue began seeking legal counsel during the summer of 2008 when it became increasingly apparent that federal officials affiliated with the IACC were in violation of FACA rules (One example NIMH Flip Flops) and attempts to remedy the situation went unheeded despite the direct involvement of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight under the House Science and Technology Committee (HERE).

On Tuesday, the day before the fateful IACC meeting leading to Alison Singer’s vote and resignation (HERE), the non-profit Public Citizen Litigation Group put us in touch with the DC firm and the following information was sent to a senior partner after our phone call. (Side note: The latest information regarding the “revote” shenanigans was sent as follow up on Friday):

I would first like to state that, from the onset of your campaign, you have had my full support and trust. Rarely has an individual inspired such hope in the American people. Because of your wisdom, intelligence and ability to lead, many of us who had lost faith in our government will now stand with you as we face the tough challenges that lie ahead. The health crisis that affects this current generation of children is one of those challenges and if not addressed effectively, this problem will greatly impact not only our economy, but take it’s emotional toll on families, the country and on future generations of Americans.

I have been a pediatric registered nurse for 32 years. During that time, I have watched as the number of children with chronic conditions such as ADHD, Autism, Asthma, Obesity, Allergies, etc have escalated dramatically.

Polly Tommey presents: Autism Issues Around the WorldGuest: Simon Baron-Cohen, PhD, MPhilTopic: Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen's testosterone theory, his view on what he found, what he is seeing, and how he was misrepresented by the British press.

Join The Autism File magazine editor-in-chief, Polly Tommey, as she talks with Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen. According to Polly Tommey: "Simon Baron-Cohen asserts that he was grossly misrepresented by the British press, he is horrified with the Guardian article, and says this has absolutely nothing to do with terminating pregnancies." Polly continued talking about the British press: "The press is just crap. They grossly misprint anything to do with autism over here. They are stopping all the science...everything in this country, and you can't move forward due to the British press."

For additional background on the obstructionism of the British press and the influences behind it, please see the upcoming article in the January 2009 edition of The Autism File magazine titled "Vaccine Damage Denial and the British Press" by Martin J. Walker. Visit www.autismfile.com.

Lea and Litsa are in Canada and seeking stories about how ABA and/or biomedical treatments have helped your child.

By Lea Schizas & Litsa Kamateros

Follow and participate in the journey of our upcoming book: Autism Epidemic: Shaking the System. We need your voice to be heard and validated through our book to the systems that have the capability to hear us and make necesary changes to benefit one and all. Autism knows no boundaries, and we welcome input from everyone, no matter where you are situated around the world. Visit our blog Shaking the System.

We are seeking Personal Success Stories from parents/guardians who have seen a remarkable improvement in their children using ABA and/or a biomedical therapy. The more stories we collect the more proof we have that ABA and/or biomedical treatments to help children with autism. Governments claim there is no cure for autism but if we can present to them remarkable recovery stories perhaps they will begin to be open and hear us out.

TACA is blessed to have friends and supporters who are celebrities and professional athletes, and who care deeply about people with autism and the TACA mission. Many times they asked us how they could help. In response to that question, the FAITH, HOPE & RECOVERY PROJECT was born.

The Hope, Faith & Recovery Project consists of artwork developed by TACA special friends along the theme of three very important words for families living with autism - HOPE, FAITH and RECOVERY. Each artist has been asked to be inspired by infusing hope for families affected by autism and for the finished project to have a child like flare.